Well. Eero just announced a new 2nd gen hardware, and I must say, I have pre-ordered it.Orbi raw speed is great (when it seems to work) but you have some major flaws that I just think it's time to move on, and eat the cost of these things.- your iOS app, well... it is just sad. It doesn't really do anything.- we are forced to use the web UI, and imo has a dated look/feel and also seems sluggish.- your lack of community envolement is very noticeable. Eeros devs are very active in the eero sub Reddit, so you get a really good understanding on what is going on with the product. The orbi team seems MIA most of the time, unless they want to talk about a new product coming out. Lots of posts go unanswered on here. No one is really trying to solve issues, unless you submit a ticket in your 90 days or pay extra to do so...- when you do release a firmware update, what does it actually do?- clearly their are some major bugs/flaws that are not being addressed, or maybe they have been acknowledged, but it has been months...- Eero comes with a 1 year warranty standard, but now with the option for $99/year for "VIP" customer service plus other extras is an nice option to have.It sad... $499 down the drain as I was an early adopter when orbi was first released, but I just can't recommend this product anymore to my friends.

Silver0066 wrote: I think it is disgusting of Netgear to rely on their customers to beta test their products. I spend most of my time in the ReadyNAS forums, but happened to run across this. To clarify - Netgear certainly does their own Q/A, and that includes automated testing in shielded rooms that allows them to precisely measure wifi performance under a lot of different signal conditions. I was able to visit their San Jose facility last year, and saw them testing Orbi in one of those rooms. They use closed beta testing to supplement the normal testing, not to replace it. Only some products are chosen for closed betas - I imagine it is quite expensive to do. In my opinion Orbi is a good candidate for these betas, since it's ideal to test the backhaul performance in homes, and not just in lab conditions. If you participate in these tests, you do get to keep the equipment. Generally it is beta-quality, and not final production. In my opinion the beta testers do more than enough to earn that equipment - the testing takes quite a bit of time. FWIW, I do have an Orbi setup and it is working out well for me. Nighthawks gave better near-router wifi speeds, but Orbi gives good wifi speeds throughout the house. I agree there's more that can be done, and no doubt there are still bugs to fix.

I have been waiting for a bug free firmware update for months. I have lost all confidence in this company and their awful customer service and buggy firmware updates. I also just ordered the new Eero's.

You can add me to this list as well. Its really sad, for such promising hardware NetGear has squandered its opportunity.

They been working on it for 9-10 months. I owned Orbi before my Eero now, and have had EERO for the last 4 months. ORBI was nothing but a disconnecting nightmare. Always promising they would fix the issue. Wasted so much of my time. Ignore Petey as he is a fanboy and ignores the fact the Orbi is a failure of a wifi system and terrible support. They don't seem to care to fix the issue. It doesn't take 10 months to get this issue fixed. I worked on enterprise grade hardware, and an issue like this would be fixed in just a matter of days.

I think it is disgusting of Netgear to rely on their customers to beta test their products. The Orbi has been out for 9 months and they are still using their customers to fix it instead of hiring some talented IT people to fix. They are dishonest in marketing a product to the public that is full of bugs.

2nd gen Eero announced. | NETGEAR Communities

87 Replies

Retired_Member
Jun 16, 2017
"the r and d team are still on this even today as its not like they have just dumped the orbi on the market and moved on as is obvious by the amount of fw updates there has been"

Couldn't that just be one guy putting in an hour a week? It doesn't seem like the firmware updates are fixing anything. It sure seems like they just dumped it and moved on, they are absent on these forums and all support is going through a 3rd party in the Philippines and not Netgear. The only engagement these days is DarrenM occasionally pm'ing a random person about the beta or telling someone to update their iPad. I'm glad he's at least on here but I wish we heard something at all anout all of these problems.

Does anyone know which level of support is actually Netgear? Level 3 is still done by Concentrix and that's as far as I've gotten with a 3 month old very active case.
- peteytesting
  Hero
  Jun 17, 2017
  no it is not the case , i can assure you that the beta team are still very active on this project as well , there has been a huge amount of resources and effort put into this project and it is continuing even today as we speak , i know this as im in the beta project and have been from the start , you can become a beta tester if you like as netgear beta testing of new devices is open to anyone who would like to put their hand up
  
  as to the level of support i will ask for you and get back to you on this when i find out
  
  regards
  
  pete
Retired_Member
Jun 17, 2017
Thanks Pete, I hope they give you a lifetime supply of networking equipment for the amount of work you do on their behalf!
- peteytesting
  Hero
  Jun 17, 2017
  as a beta tester you get to keep what you test and when it came to orbi that quite a saving
  
  i dont particapate in all beta testing but i help where i can
  
  my aim is to help where i can when i can and tbh i dont bias one manufacturer over another as i test for many , i have cupboards full of routers most of which i agree to not sell and most dont have serial numbers , but its fun to have a play and test the differences , keeps the mind active , idle hands and all :)\
  
  as i said anyone can apply to become a beta tester with netgear as long as you are keen to help and learn at the same time as thats the key as no matter how much i know there is always something new to learn and be amazed by , im just like a kid in a lolly shop when it comes to this network stuff :)
  
  pete
  - loomis1975
    Luminary
    Jun 17, 2017
    Speaking of new systems coming out, the Samsung Connect Home 3-Pack is out soon. Its claim to fame is a built in SmartThings home automation hub. I think there is a speedier version of this called PRO, but the stats for the basic 3-pack are:
    2x2 Mu-Mimo 802.11AC
    866 MBPS @ 5 Ghz, 400 MBPS @ 2.4 Ghz, AC1300
    Coverage for homes up to 4,500 sq feet (1,500 per device).
    One App controls it all, home automation, router configuration
    Updates Automatically
    2 Ethernet Jacks per Device
    Can have 5 devices total.
    
    PRO is AC2600 1.733 Mbps on 5Ghz, 800 Mbps on 2.4 Ghz, 4x4 Mu-Mimo 802.11AC
    
    Don't have any info about what the backhaul signal is, or if it is true mesh topology, or if it can do wired backhaul.
Vmk16
Star
Jul 06, 2017
Hello NortheastGuy ,

I do agree with what you have said but we need to understand that all networking product comes with some or the other flaws moreover orbi works tremendously great as Pete has mentioned .Well Netgear will be launching an app for orbi just like Netgear genie and that will be really soon, we have already come long way , let's wait a bit more .
BostonRob101
Guide
Jul 06, 2017
Vmk16,

Do you work for Netgear tech support? No offense but your responses sound exactly like their scripts. It would be cool if you do, just curious. Thanks.
BostonRob101
Guide
Jul 06, 2017
I don't care if the orbi provides 1,000,000 sq ft of coverage because it keeps dropping the connection. I'll take stability any day and I am excited to try the Eero.
- peteytesting
  Hero
  Jul 06, 2017
  BostonRob101 wrote:
  I don't care if the orbi provides 1,000,000 sq ft of coverage because it keeps dropping the connection. I'll take stability any day and I am excited to try the Eero.
  
  then by all means start the rma process and ether get it replaced or returned , i can help you with that process if you like , just message me with some details and i will pass them onto the escalation team , btw i dont work for netgear ether but im happy to help where i can
cue003
Apprentice
Jul 10, 2017
Or test the Eero 2 with the beacons against the RBK30 Orbi package.
ConstantineP
Star
Jul 10, 2017
Thanks for the response(s) here, appreciated. Have you seen the new App/UI or whatever is being updated to control the Orbi ? Having dropped Eero because it stores all my surfing, etc info in their cloud i was hoping we could get similar features. I use OpenDNS but would make life easier if i could see these dario's through the app, live, like i could with Eero. Gotta know what my kid surfs !! Thanks, Constantine
- nizmoz
  Apprentice
  Jul 10, 2017
  ConstantineP wrote:
  Thanks for the response(s) here, appreciated. Have you seen the new App/UI or whatever is being updated to control the Orbi ? Having dropped Eero because it stores all my surfing, etc info in their cloud i was hoping we could get similar features. I use OpenDNS but would make life easier if i could see these dario's through the app, live, like i could with Eero. Gotta know what my kid surfs !! Thanks, Constantine
  
  EERO does not store where you surf or anything like that. Your info stays private.
ConstantineP
Star
Jul 10, 2017
dario ? data !
ConstantineP
Star
Jul 10, 2017
Okay, but it's stored in their cloud, right ? If someone hacks them they could release all surfing history with IP, etc. correct ? Loads of personal identifiers ?
- dmakogon
  Guide
  Jul 10, 2017
  ConstantineP wrote:
  Okay, but it's stored in their cloud, right ? If someone hacks them they could release all surfing history with IP, etc. correct ? Loads of personal identifiers ?
  Eero stores device telemetry: MAC/IP address, attached devices, settings, signal strength, crash data, etc. They do not store any history of your internet activity.
  
  This is all spelled out in their post here, including this tidbit:
  
  we don't ever track the websites you visit or collect the content of your network traffic. We don’t sell our customer data, and we don’t sell ads based on this data.
  
  Also, there is no Eero cloud. They utilize AWS as their cloud provider. They mention secure storage, so (while I can't confirm), they're likely using encrypted-at-rest storage. Details are here.
- nizmoz
  Apprentice
  Jul 10, 2017
  ConstantineP wrote:
  Okay, but it's stored in their cloud, right ? If someone hacks them they could release all surfing history with IP, etc. correct ? Loads of personal identifiers ?
  It is stored no where. They do not keep that information.
NortheastGuy
Star
Jul 10, 2017
I made the move to Eero. I was one of the people having issues with drops, and I also grew tired of waiting for a better mobile interface. I'm able to get throughput on-par with my Orbi (on only a 200M/sec connection, so YMMV).

I just want to note that if I wasn't having the issues I had with Orbi, I wouldn't have switched - If your Orbi is working fine (i.e. most Orbi users) and you don't want / care about a mobile interface, I personally wouldn't take the plunge given the costs involved. However, if you are having issues its something worth investigating as a possible solution.

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2nd gen Eero announced.